FEASIBILITY AND APPLICATIONS OF SULFUR CONCRETE FOR LUNAR BASE DEVELOPMENT: A

PRELIMINARY STUDY. I. Casanova, School of Civil Engineering, Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya, Gran Capit s/n,
Mdul C1, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain, (casanova@etseccpb.upc.es)
A major step in space exploration activities during the
21
st
century will be the construction of permanent bases on
the Moon. Prior to this, suitable lunar structures must be
conceived and built in order to provide adequate protection
to facilities and personnel from the harsh lunar environment.
In this direction, considerable effort has been devoted in
recent years to study the feasibility of concrete as a lunar
construction material [1] that can be produced largely from
components available in the lunar regolith [2,3]. Although
additional technological developments are necessary, the
mechanical properties and thermo-chemical stability of ce-
ment-based materials make them a very promising candidate
(among few) for lunar construction activities. On the other
hand, it is clear that any progress on the establishment of a
permanent lunar base is necessarily constrained by the avail-
ability of in-situ resources. Major advances have been made
in the design of process methods for the production of oxy-
gen [4], cementitious materials [5] and even water [6] from
the lunar regolith.
Proper evaluation of natural resources is therefore a ma-
jor task in the development of strategies for moonbase site
selection. As far as raw materials for concrete are concerned,
water is undoubtedly the most scarce resource. Even if the
existence of ancient cometary ice deposits in the South Pole-
Aitken basin [7] is confirmed by the Lunar Prospector mis-
sion in 1997, the location and abundance of such a resource
cast serious doubt on the feasibility of using it as a construc-
tion material. It is therefore difficult to envision mass pro-
duction of conventional concrete in such a dry environment,
and new options must be considered. In this sense, a need
arises to find an alternative material or component to bind
the solid ingredients of concrete and subsequently gain
strength upon solidification. These criteria constrain the
search to relatively abundant volatile substances, capable of
undergoing solid-liquid phase transformations at low tem-
peratures. In the lunar geochemical inventory, sulfur is
probably the only suitable choice.
Lunar sulfur inventory. The relatively restricted S con-
centrations in lunar samples suggest that the sulfur content
of the lunar regolith is mainly controlled by troilite (FeS)
abundance. These contents range from a few tens of ppm in
ferroan anorthosites to over 2000 ppm S in high-titanium
lavas from the Apollo 11 and 17 sites [8]. Evaporation and
condensation have undoubtedly played a significant role in
the distribution of sulfur on the lunar surface. However,
small veins of troilite are observed in a few lunar breccias
suggesting that some kind of sulfide metamorphism, analo-
gous to the formation of terrestrial ore deposits, has operated
throughout the geological history of lunar materials. Such
features may indicate local enrichments in sulfur during the
magmatic history of some lunar igneous rocks; the apparent
positive correlation between the S and Ti contents of mare
basalt materials is consistent with fractional crystallization of
an ancient magma ocean, which would concentrate the chal-
cophile elements into sulfide beds, as is observed in terres-
trial layered intrusions [9]. The sulfide phases would prefer-
entially migrate into the liquid during partial melting, pro-
ducing a subsequent enrichment in sulfur of late-stage crys-
tallization products such as high-Ti lavas. The global geo-
chemical mapping to be carried out by the Lunar Prospector
should provide essential information on the overall sulfur
abundance of the lunar surface and identify possible local
concentrations of this element.
Is sulfur concrete a viable alternative? Sulfur concrete
is not a new concept. In fact, the utilization of sulfur as a
molten bonding agent dates back to prehistoric times. Un-
modified sulfur and aggregate materials are hot-mixed, cast,
and cooled to prepare sulfur concrete products. The sulfur
binder first crystallizes as monoclinic sulfur (S

) at 114 C,
with a volume decrease of about 7%. On further cooling to
below 96 C, sulfur undergoes a transformation to S

, the
stable orthorhombic polymorph at ambient temperatures.
Current applications of modified sulfur concretes are fo-
cussed on applications in industrial plants where acid and
salt-rich environments result in premature deterioration and
failure of conventional Portland cement concrete. In addition
to raw material availability, some advantages of sulfur con-
crete of special relevance to lunar construction are: (1) Ten-
sile, compressive and flexural strengths, as well as fatigue
life, are greater than those obtained with conventional Port-
land cement concrete; (2) Rapid setting, achieving a mini-
mum of 70-80 % of ultimate compressive strength within 24
hours; (3) It can be placed in below-freezing temperatures
[10].
In constrast with the complex, ultra-high temperature
processing required for the extraction of cementitious com-
ponents from lunar regolith materials (e.g. anothosites) and
in-situ production of water (requiring H
2
imported from
Earth), the production of elemental sulfur from troilite is a
relatively simple task, demanding only moderate tempera-
tures (on the order of 1000-1200 C), which are easily
achieved with standard solar concentrators.
A concern on the utilization of sulfur concrete may arise
from the relatively poor durability of this material in re-
sponse to repeated thermal cycles. Typical lunar mid-latitude
average temperatures are between -53 and -18 C, with maxi-
mum monthly ranges of 140 degrees [11]. This means that
suitable locations where T
max
does not exceed that of sulfur
melting may be found on the lunar surface. On the other
hand, volume changes due to polymorphic transitions are
unavoidable at locations of maximum temperature ranges,
with the subsequent detrimental effect on sulfur concrete
integrity. Therefore, locations where monthly temperature
variations do not exceed 114 C (i.e., T
max
< 96 C) are re-
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SULFUR CONCRETE FOR LUNAR BASE DEVELOPMENT: I. Casanova
quired to prevent S

- S

transformation. Provided that the

T
max
requirements are met, it is necessary to evaluate the
durability of the material against thermal cycles of a substan-
tial temperature range. Freeze-thaw durability experiments
(according to ASTM C 666, Method A) on sulfur concrete
after one-day cooling yield values of about 60% retention of
the original dynamic modulus of elasticity, after 300 cycles
[10]. This result, however, cannot be extrapolated to the
equivalent 300 lunar month (approximately 23 years) period
since the amplitude (temperature range) of the cycles in the
lunar thermal environment is substantially larger than in the
experimental procedure referred to above. In principle, the
larger the amplitude of the cycle, the faster the decay of elas-
tic properties of the material. The question of how much of
this amplitude effect may be compensated by the relatively
long duration of the lunar thermal cycles (potentially allow-
ing partial restoration of the damage) must be addressed
experimentally. In any case, it may be anticipated that using
extended cooling periods, the low frequency of thermal cy-
cling on the surface of the Moon (one lunar month) guaran-
tees an extended service life for sulfur concrete-based struc-
tures. Repair campaigns may be thus limited to reheating
(and/or recoating) surface layers in order to sinter away the
cracks. Another possible mechanism of degradation of sulfur
cement-based materials is sputtering due to impact of high-
energy particles from the solar wind or flares. This effect is,
at worst, restricted to the outermost millimeters of the ex-
posed material, and requires long-time scales to produce any
significant damage affecting the integrity of the structure.
Repair procedures mentioned above are also applicable in
this case.
Dust minimization as a potential short-term concrete
application in lunar base development. The environment of
the Moon imposes severe restrictions on equipment design,
and presents major operational difficulties due to several
factors, including dust, high-vacuum, temperature fluctua-
tions, radiation hazards, micrometeorite bombardment and
low gravity [13]. Among these, the contamination of the
lunar environment by dust particles from the regolith is a
major concern for both equipment performance and astro-
nomical research activities. Dust is dispersed in the lunar
environment as a result of meteorite impacts and (mainly)
spacecraft landing/lift-off and surface transportation activi-
ties. The construction of thin (a few tens of cm) concrete
slabs for their use as landing/lift-off platforms and/or pave-
ments on selected sites of the lunar surface will help mini-
mize this dust remobilization problem. The feasibility of
sulfur concrete production with present-day technology, in-
situ availability of raw materials and enhanced flexural
strength properties, makes it an attractive candidate for short-
term development of the first lunar construction activities.
While it is premature to conceive the actual application of
such material to habitat construction for extended human
presence, sulfur concrete is today a viable alternative to con-
ventional cement-based materials for the implementation of
the first in-situ-made structures on the surface of the Moon,
thus paving the road for future lunar exploration develop-
ments and, eventually, establishment of a permanent moon-
base.
References: [1] Kaden, R.A. (1991) Lunar Concrete.
SP-125, American Concrete Institute. 304 pp. [2] Lin, T.D.
Concrete International 9: 48-53. [3] Lin, T.D. et al. (1987)
Proc. AIAA, October. [4] McKay, D.S. and Allen, C.C.
(1996) Proc. AIAA 96-0488, January. [5] Burt, D.M. (1991)
In [1]. [6] Cutler, A.H. (1984) Symp. Lunar Bases and
Space Activities in the 21
st
Century (abstract), p.21. [7]
Nozette, S. et al. (1996) Science 274: 1495-1498. [8] Has-
kin, L. and Warren, P. (1991) In: Lunar Sourcebook: a users
guide to the Moon. Cambridge Univ. Press, Chapter 8. [9]
Taylor, S.R. (1982) Planetary Science: a Lunar Perspective.
Lunar and Planetary Institute, 481 pp. [10] American Con-
crete Institute (1988) ACI Manual of Concrete Practice, ACI
548.2R-88. [11] Vaniman, D. et al. (1991) In: Lunar Sour-
cebook: a users guide to the Moon. Cambridge Univ. Press,
Chapter 3. [12] Carrier III, W.D. et al. (1991) In: Lunar
Sourcebook: a users guide to the Moon. Cambridge Univ.
Press, Chapter 9. [13] Taylor, L.A.and Taylor D-H.S. (1996)
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